Searching for tunes
Google is singing a new tune and is getting serious about offering a music service to rival Apple’s iTunes and grab a piece of the $4.2 billion digital music pie.
The search giant has been in talks with music labels about rolling out a song download store for a growing number of devices that run on its Android mobile operating system.
In a sign that the company is making music a priority, Andy Rubin, a former Apple engineer who is now the chief architect of Android, has been involved in the talks, according to industry sources.
Although Android got off to a slow start when it was introduced in 2008, it is quickly making up for lost time and has emerged as the biggest rival to Apple.
“They are very serious about it and they will be very aggressive about it,” said one source close to the talks. “At some point toward the end of the year they will have the download store tied into search and phones.”
Google hasn’t given any additional details about the launch date or features for the service, but at a developer conference last month it gave a preview of how a song could be downloaded through its Android Marketplace. It also showed how DRM-free music stored on a user’s desktop could be streamed to any Android device.
When it comes to the digital download market, Apple’s iTunes is the clear leader, owning about a 70 percent market share, followed by Amazon’s MP3 store with about 12 percent, according to NPD.
While industry sources said the labels welcome the idea of Google getting into the music business, no one expects the labels to cut Google a better deal on price than Apple or Amazon. Still, digital music remains a hot sector, growing globally by 12 percent last year, according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, a trade group.
Rather, they expect Google will compete in other ways to make a compelling offering, such as adding capabilities to make music more searchable and discoverable for users of its service.
“What they have is a tremendous amount of traffic and expertise around search and browsing,” said Daniel Stein, the CEO of eMusic, an online subscription music service. “Around those elements lives a potentially fantastic music service.”
Last year, Google unveiled a new music search feature, called “OneBox,” that let users search by artist name, album or song title to find music online.
Instead of starting its own music service, Google linked search results to other licensed music service providers, which allowed consumers to preview or purchase tracks. At the time, Google was adamant that it was not getting into the business of selling music or asking for a cut of the revenue that resulted from music searches.
Since then, however, two of Google’s partners have been acquired by rivals. MySpace Music bought iMeem and Apple acquired Lala. In May, Apple shut down Lala.